On the hunt with drought busters

Shortly before noon, sprinklers shot skyward across an apartment lawn, followed by a whoosh of water discharged by a broken pipe. Dana Batholomew in the Daily News.

Within minutes, a flood of precious water had spilled across the sidewalk and into a neighboring yard.

"It's terrible," said Sonia Ramos, 44, a resident of the complex in the 6300 block of Fulton Avenue. "A lot of water wasted. This building - we told the manager, but they don't care. Where I live, the sink is leaking; the toilet is broken and leaks constantly for the past six months."

Enter the city's Drought Busters.